A mother-of-three has been left blind in one eye after a $13,000 partial facelift.
Dian Keller, 70, and from Florida, had surgery in February after being inspired by friends who looked ‘excellent’ after their own procedures.
But when she woke up from the three-hour op, the marketing expert was plunged into a world of pain that felt like ‘someone had poured kerosene into my eye and set fire to it’.
Once a regular gym-goer and pillar of her Florida community, Ms Keller has now transformed into a hermit spending almost all her time indoors.
‘My quality of life is destroyed,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘I can’t really go out, I can’t see, I’m still walking around in constant pain — and now I have all these other medical bills.
I love to dance, I used to entertain a lot and see friends, but now I can’t and that is really upsetting me.’
In the days after the surgery, she could see nothing except occasional bright lights out of both eyes.
The vision in her left eye has now been mostly restored, but in the right she can still only make out vague shapes — and has to wear a bandage to cover its appearance.
It is not clear whether she will ever fully regain her sight.
Ms Keller — whose case was first revealed by WSVN-TV ,said that since the surgery she has also lost all feeling in her forehead and the top of her scalp and that an incision has reopened, but that these problems pale in comparison to those with her eyes.
Doctors say that her vision problems were caused by her skin being pulled ‘too tight’ during her procedure, leaving her eyelids unable to close.
This caused the cornea, the outer layer of the eye, to dry out and develop ulcers, distorting her vision.
Some doctors also suggested that a chemical may have been spilled into her right eye during surgery, causing problems with its vision.
Ms Keller is set to have another surgery in September to help her eyelids close again.
She estimates she may rack up up to $60,000 in medical bills because she has had to go out-of-network to get care.
Ms Keller is planning to sue her surgeon, but is so far yet to find a lawyer to pick up the case.
Her surgeon was Dr Carlos Spera, who has three clinics in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties.
Online, he describes himself as a ‘beacon of aesthetic excellence’ and ‘top plastic surgeon’ who provides ‘outstanding outcomes’ for patients.
His website adds: ‘As a seasoned professional and a licensed physician in Florida, Dr. Spera brings his comprehensive expertise to Miami’s plastic surgery scene.’
Plastic surgeries have surged in popularity in the US in recent years for their promise to make people look younger naturally.
A record 26million cosmetic tweaks were carried out in 2022, the latest year available, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), up 19 percent from 2019 — amid the surge in Ozempic use and social media.
Ms Keller says she booked with him to have a temporal brow lift, a common op popular with 40 to 60-year-olds used for minimizing loose skin by making an incision on each side of the hairline and lifting the outermost third of the brow and forehead.
She specifically chose this procedure because it was less invasive than the full brow lift, which involves lifting all the skin in this area.
It also differs from the partial — or mini — facelift, used to address early signs of aging by slightly lifting the skin in the lower face. It is commonly done on patients aged 30 to 40 years old.
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